The vaporizing unit of the present invention is similar in some structural respects to the soft contact lens disinfecting unit described in application Ser. No. 317,071 which was filed Nov. 2, 1981 in the name of the present inventor and Stephen G. Hauser, and which issued July 16, 1985 as U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,868.
The prior art vaporizers, for the most part, use steam to vaporize a medication or other substance, so that the medication may be raised to a constant vaporizing temperature and vaporized at that temperature over a relatively long period of time. The vaporizer of the present invention, on the other hand, provides a dry vaporizing action by which a medication, or other substance to be vaporized, is vaporized directly at its vaporizing temperature for substantially long periods of time, without any need for the generation of steam.
The vaporization unit of the invention, like the unit described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,868, and like the unit described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,126, uses a paraffin wax, or equivalent material, to transmit the heat from the heating elements to the heating wells, or to a solid tablet, so that a predetermined temperature may be established in the heating wells, or at the tablet, which remains constant over prolonged periods of time.